It made me want you all the more. I set up the movie deal in the hope that it would win you around to wanting me again.”He heaved a sigh to relieve the tightness in his chest. Her gaze was clinging to his. No anguish in her eyes now. More an urgent intensity, begging for more.“Then there was Jack. Which completely threw me. You’d so decisivelyshut me out, even when I had the right to know we’d made a child.” He leaned forward, forearms on his knees, hands gesturing futility as he shook his head.”I won’t even try to explain what I felt then. I know I shamelessly used Jack to get you, and right then I didn’t care if you wanted me or not. I was going to have both of you and I would have done anything to force that end.”“I’m glad you did, Peter,” she inserted with startling vehemence. “Glad that I invaded your life and carried you off?” he queried.“Yes. I didn’t want to be alone. I just didn’t know how to…how to fix things between us. I got it all wrong. I know I did. These past two

ANEESA ADANI was stuck in a waking nightmare. She battled a surge of panic as her younger sister and aunts led her forward towards the place where her fiancé waited to make her his wife.The elaborate wedding sari she wore constricted her movements, adding to the sense of cloying claustrophobia.Heavy jewels literally dripped from her head, ears, throat, arms and hands, weighing her down.Fighting an overwhelming urge to break free and escape she told herself once again that she only had herself to blame for her predicament. If she hadn’t been so blinkered, so unforgivably naïve … so impossibly complacent, then she might not be here right now.She was propelled forward again and suddenly her fiancé and her parents saw her arrival. A hush descended over the crowd in the huge and beautiful inner courtyard, lit with the seductive glow of hundreds of lanterns. This courtyard was the centrepiece in one of the most exclusive hotels in Mumbai—the jewel in the hotel’s crown. The sheer opulen

ANEESA whirled around so fast her head spun and she gripped the wall behind her with both hands. And then she saw him in the dim light. She recognised him instantly by his intense piercing blue eyes, like chips of ice. It was the man from the shadows she’d seen downstairs. And now she also registered what she’d missed entirely in her distraught state: a state-of-the-art terrace pool, lit from underwater.The man’s arms were resting nonchalantly on the side of the pool, and crossed, as if he was quite used to hysterical women in full bridal regalia bursting onto his private terrace.His hair was slicked back against a well-shaped skull and in the shadows the lines of his face were stark, his jaw hard. He arched one ebony-black brow and once again Aneesa had the gut-clenching realisation of how extraordinarily handsome he was. It was a physical sensation she’d never experienced with Jamal, even though she’d believed herself to be in love with him. The realisation sent shock through

She held out her dripping hands stupidly and looked up at him, struggling to regain control. ‘I ….I can’t get rid of the henna tattoo…. Do you have any idea what this means?’Sebastian shook his head, looking grim. And gorgeous.Aneesa was aware of that even in this state.She said brokenly, ‘It’s meant to symbolise my transition from innocence … except now I don’t even have a husband to seduce me! I’m going to be walking around with the physical mark of my shame for everyone to see for weeks!’Sebastian just got a facecloth and wrung it out in the warm water. He came close and gently wiped at the trails of mascara running down Aneesa’s cheeks. She could feel the backs of his lower arms brush against her chest as he wiped her face, and in an instantaneous reaction, her nipples stiffened, pushing against the hard material of her bodice top. Her inner agitation died away as a wholly new tension entered her body, flooding her belly with a hot tingling awareness, a sensation of melting.A

Her legs wobbled, knees threatening to give out, as she gasped, ‘Sebastian …’ Her hands tightened on his shoulders, as he seemed to effortlessly know just what to do to stoke her desire higher and higher. Her belly was clenched, her skin tingling all over and her head felt like it might explode.‘It’s … too much …’ It’s not enough! The contradictory thoughts rang in her head.She wanted him to stop and never to stop, and it was overwhelming. She nearly cried out when he took his hand away and stood again. He pressed a hot kiss against her mouth and said, ‘Sorry … we’ll take it slower….’Aneesa was immediately contrite. ‘No … I mean, I don’t know … I just—’He shushed her with a finger to her lips. ‘You don’t have to say anything … it’s OK. This is just the beginning.’And then he started to strip, making her mind go blank.His shirt came off to reveal that stunningly beautiful chest again and then his hands were on his trousers. Helplessly her eyes dropped and she watched in fascinati